Hey, beautiful people!  It is important to keep a hair journal so that you can figure out what works for your hair and what doesn't.  My hair journal that I've had for years is finally on it's last pages, so I'm taking it electronic.

This weekend, I had limited time for my wash day because I was home alone with the baby.  I have had Koils by Nature products in my stash for awhile, so today seemed like the best time to try.

In typical wash day fashion, I applied my deep conditioner the night before, separating my hair into 4 sections.  I used the Koils by Nature Ultra Moisturizing Deep Conditioner (review coming soon).  I left it in while I took my shower, then I rinsed it out while finger detangling.

I didn't towel or T-shirt dry my hair today.  Instead, I applied the Koils by Nature Cocoa-Aloe Leave-in Conditioner (review coming soon) to my hair, while doing additional finger detangling.  Then, I applied the Koils by Nature Herbal Curl Defining Gel in Peppermint for a wash n' go.  I'm not expecting much out of this wash n' go because the gel doesn't seem like it has enough hold, though it has great slip.

I started the wash process at 11:15 a.m., and I was done applying the gel by 11:38 (total wash time 23 minutes).  Over an hour later, my hair was still dripping.  Twelve hours later, it was mainly dry. I had a little flaking, but not a ton.  The bigger issue was that it frizzed horribly, and shrunk alot.

The top is wet hair. The bottom is dry.

1. Strive for a healthier body.  A healthy body leads to healthy hair, so I need to focus on both.  This doesn’t mean that I can’t have dessert and cheesy appetizers every once in a while, but I can’t have it every day.  Also, now that I’ve had my baby, I have a size goal (not a weight goal) in mind, so I’m going to start exercising again to get to that goal.  Don't worry, I don't want to be stick skinny.  I like my curves.  I just want them a little firmer.


2. Drink at least 64 oz of water every day.  Proper water intake helps with moisture retention levels (more on this later), and it just helps the body function better.  While I was pregnant, I got dehydrated very easily, so I started different techniques to help me drink more water.  One of those was to buy 32 oz plastic mason jars.  I’ve found that if I fill up the jar morning when I get to work, and then fill it up again mid-afternoon, I easily get my 64 oz in without thinking about it.


3. Maintain healthy hair practices.  I am less than 6 inches away from mid-back length (MBL) / bra strap length (BSL).  As I’ve said before, I am not setting length as a goal, because I want to focus more on healthy hair practices than length.  But, healthy hair practices, such as weekly deep conditioning and baggying when needed, should get me to this length in 2015.  One day I do want to be waist length and it would be great to get there in 4 years (2016).  The distinction, however, is that I won’t ever avoid a necessary cut to preserve length over healthy hair.


4. Continue to narrow my staple products.  In a previous post, I listed my product favorites for 2014.  I will always be a product junkie on some level; but, in 2015, I want to continue to shrink my product stash and strengthen my list of staple products.  I also want to avoid another incident where I go completely overboard again on product purchases.


5. Continue my hair styling exploration.  In this past year, I stopped wearing my wigs as often, attended a hair styling class, tried out a few new styles including twists, did a ton of buns/puffs, and discovered that I’m a lazy natural.  With my hair getting longer, I do want to have a few more go-to styles for work and become a little more adventurous for special occasions.  Also, I want to try to straighten my hair again since I did such a horrible job the last time, and I'm not big on failure.

What are your hair goals for 2015?